News & Reporting

Mark Ruffalo, who stars in the No. 1 film Shutter Island, tells talk show host Tavis Smiley that he faked his conversion at 8 years old when Jimmy Swaggart was a guest preacher at his church. The episode will air tonight (check local listings).

Ruffalo said he agreed to "go down" to the altar to please his grandmother, who had been asking him to get "saved." He says that as Swaggart touched the heads of other children who had approached the altar, each child fell out, as if slain in the Spirit. But when Swaggart touched Ruffalo's head, he didn't feel a thing, but decided to fake it by falling backwards to the floor: "And that was my first acting gig."

2/24 UPDATE: Ruffalo talks more about that experience in this interview with The Hollywood Reporter, and his directorial debut, Sympathy for Delicious, in which he plays a priest, is reviewed here.

Watch him tell the story – and watch Smiley crack up as he hears it:

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